James Downing

James R. Downing, M.D., became the President and Chief Executive Officer of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in 2014. A renowned leader in pediatric cancer research, Dr. Downing focuses his work on understanding the genetic basis of cancer and using that information to improve the treatment of children with cancer. He was instrumental in launching the Pediatric Cancer Genome Project (PCGP), which has sequenced the normal and cancer genomes of more than 800 young cancer patients with some of the least understood and most aggressive tumors. The project made TIME magazine’s 2012 list of top 10 medical breakthroughs. In 2013, he was a finalist for TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.

Dr. Downing is a Detroit native who earned his undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of Michigan. He joined St. Jude in 1986 after training in anatomic pathology at Washington University in St. Louis and completing a fellowship in hematopathology at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Prior to taking the helm of St. Jude, Dr. Downing served as the institution’s Scientific and Deputy Director and as an Executive Vice President in the organization. For his work, Dr. Downing has received numerous honors, including the Association for Molecular Pathology Award for Excellence in Molecular Diagnostics, which recognizes lifetime, pioneering achievement, particularly in regard to molecular diagnostics and molecular medicine.

In 2013, he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences (now known as National Academy of Medicine), and in 2016, he was named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Downing served on a Blue Ribbon Panel to advise former Vice President Joe Biden’s National Cancer Moonshot Initiative through the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Downing received the 2017 Society of Memorial Sloan Kettering Prize in recognition of the major influence his work has had in defining the genetics and genomics of pediatric cancers. He was also awarded The American Society of Hematology (ASH) 2017 E. Donnall Thomas Lecture and Prize for his discoveries related to the hematopathology and molecular biology of childhood leukemia, particularly acute lymphocytic leukemia, the most common pediatric cancer.